


Bad Luck

by tayshinny



Category: Kiss Me Again, Taynew, petekao
Genre: BL, Gay, M/M, Universe Crossover, thai drama - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 05:03:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17842973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tayshinny/pseuds/tayshinny
Summary: When Tay’s bad luck hits an all time low, he swaps lives with Pete.Tay, New, Pete and Kao all have to find a way to get back to how things used to be; will they be able to do it?





	1. Chapter 1

Date: Friday 13th  
Time: 10:21pm

“Oh come on! This cannot be happening, not today.” Tay threw his hands up in exasperation as he watched the small mirror he was holding drop to the floor before wincing at the sound of glass being broken.  
Running his hands through his hair, Tay bent down to start picking up the bigger pieces, carefully placing the shards in his other hand. As he was picking them up he could footsteps rushing towards the bathroom, a voice following shortly after.  
“Tay, what happened? Are you alright?” New immediately sank to Tay’s level, a protective arm clinging on to Tay’s frame. His eyes then looked down to Tay’s hands, a small ‘oh’ leaving his lips as he saw the broken mess on the tiles.  
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Tay sat completely down on the floor, body leaning into his boyfriends, as he started to form a small pile of broken mirror. New began to rub soothing circles on Tay’s back, his cheek resting on the elders head.  
“Here let me help. We can go buy a new mirror tomorrow when we go shopping, okay?” New reached up to grab a towel to place the shards on before going to stand, pulling Tay up with him. Tay happily followed, a deep sigh leaving his mouth.  
“I’m not worried about no longer having a mirror, I’m worried that I broke a mirror on Friday the 13th. I mean I know I have bad luck, but this has got to be on another level entirely.” Tay further leaned into New whilst he was speaking, feeling the tightened grip of New’s hands on his waist. New just chuckled and shook his head gently.  
“Only you could manage this.” Tay lightly slapped New’s stomach, finding his words not at all encouraging but you couldn’t miss the small smile playing with the corners of his mouth.  
“Look, instead of shopping tomorrow, we’ll go to a temple after we finish work.” Tay’s smile instantly grew twice the size at hearing New’s words, his lips going to peck the younger on the cheek.  
“Really! Are you sure though? You’ve been looking forward to going shopping all week.” New turned to face Tay, pressing him back against the kitchen counter they had finally reached.  
Placing his hands either side of Tay’s waist on the counter-top, New brushed his nose against Tay’s.  
“Yes I’m sure. Shopping can wait if it means you’re happier.”  
Without wasting a second, Tay leant forwards to kiss New, his hands linking at the small of his back. New smiled into the kiss, a hand coming up to cup Tay’s face.  
Just before New could deepen the kiss, Tay pulled away and jumped up to sit on the counter; his arms now hanging loosely over New’s shoulders. He used his legs to pull New closer before letting them stay hooked around his waist.  
“You really are the best boyfriend, you know.” Tay looked at New, a smile so wide his cheeks surely had to ache. New’s arms tightened around Tay’s torso, pulling him even closer; his eyes twinkling under the kitchen lighting.  
“Yeah, I’ve been told.” Tay rolled his eyes, surprised as to why he didn’t expect some teasing remark.  
“Come on, we’re going to bed. We have a big day of warding off bad luck tomorrow.” New’s hands started to move down Tay’s back and within a few seconds, he had Tay successfully in his arms; his hands gently squeezing at Tay’s ass. Tay started to protest letting New carry him to the bedroom, but he quickly grew relaxed, his fingers subconsciously swirling patterns on New’s back.  
“God, you’re heavy.” New exaggerated his reaction, a strained groan sounded as he pretended to struggle to carry Tay’s weight.  
“Hey, that’s my line!” Tay purposefully leaned back to make it slightly more difficult for New to carry him, but New was far stronger as he just pushed Tay closer to him, not seeming bothered at all.  
“Yeah, yeah, fatty.” One of New’s hands reached up to squeeze at the skin on Tay’s hip.  
The two then entered their bedroom with laughs bouncing off the walls - both completely happy. 

~In another universe~

Date: Friday 13th  
Time: 11:27 

“Pete, I seriously need to go to sleep now.” Kao spoke through laboured breaths as Pete rolled off him before he got an idea for round three,  
“You know I have an early morning class.” Pete scoffed as he turned on his side, resting his head on his hand,  
“And you know that when you look like this, it’s practically impossible for me to stop.” Kao inwardly groaned, cursing at his boyfriends insane libido; he simultaneously loved and hated it. He reached up to grab a couple of tissues on his bedside table to clean his chest and stomach but as soon as Pete realised what he was doing, he took the tissues and did it himself.  
As he wiped along Kao’s torso, Pete eyed his boyfriends body with solely hunger. Licking his lips, Pete lowered his hand to trace Kao’s happy trail at a rate so slow that Kao had enough time to place a sturdy hand atop of Pete’s; it stopping all motions. Pete instantly looked up to Kao’s face, a pleading look behind his eyes.  
“Pete.” Kao’s voice was stern, but ultimately did nothing to deter Pete and his intentions.  
“Come on, three’s the charm and I feel like we could use some luck today, it being Friday the 13th and all.” Kao quirked his eyebrows; Pete never usually got superstitious. After his day planned to make sure himself and Pete didn’t break up, Pete hadn’t really shown any interest in being lucky/unlucky.  
“What’s gotten you so worked up about the most unlucky day?” Kao tilted his head quizzically as he placed Pete’s hand on his chest. 

Pete shrugged, not entirely sure himself why he was this freaked over the date.  
“I don’t know, a sixth sense or something I guess?” Pete watched Kao’s lips curl up in a smile, it far too tempting for him not to kiss. Kao wanted to protest but knew it was useless trying to argue with Pete, especially when his tongue was already pushing past his lips and his hands were already gripping tightly on his body.  
The pair continued to kiss before Pete pulled back eventually to take a breath. The second contact was lost, Kao started talking to lessen the likelihood of Pete diving straight back in.  
“Well tell you and your sixth sense to go to sleep. You’re fine, it’s not like you broke a mirror or something.” As he spoke, Kao pushed Pete’s shoulder so he led down on his back. He pulled up the covers and cuddled into Pete’s side, resting his head against Pete’s chest; the sound of his heartbeat comforting to Kao.  
Pete sighed but wrapped an arm around Kao and placed a kiss on top of his boyfriends head.  
“Fine, but you owe me tomorrow.” Kao smiled as he closed his eyes, sleep quickly taking over.  
“I’m sure I can find a way to repay you.” Kao didn’t even need to look at Pete’s face to know the exasperated expression so plainly written across his features.  
Pete opened his mouth to say something in return, but closed his mouth and shuffled further down the bed to get himself and Kao completely comfy. Though he wasn’t tired at all, Pete didn’t have the heart to stir Kao up again. One quick glance down at the brunet was all Pete needed to smile to himself and know that he would do absolutely anything for the man he loved.


	2. Chapter 2

Pete

Waking up to an alarm he couldn’t remember setting, Pete shuffled to a more seated position and turned the annoying noise off. Sitting back against the headboard, he looked over to his boyfriend sleeping so peacefully; lips parted, hair messy and chest on full display. Pete took a few minutes to admire his boyfriend’s body, never really getting the chance to look at him without Kao making some kind of comment.  
With thoughts from the night before flooding back to him, Pete checked the time on his phone.

6:34am

Pete stared at his screen in confusion until it faded to black on its own - when did I set an alarm for this early? Pete placed his phone back down with knitted eyebrows before looking back down to the brunet beside him. A smirk started to form on his lips when he stared at the bare chest; ideas of starting round three that Kao had promised him last night earlier than he had planned. With a hand slowly removing the duvet off the rest of Kao’s body, Pete kept his eyes trained on his face, making sure to not wake him up. Though he murmured a couple of times, Kao stayed asleep, completely undisturbed by Pete’s actions.  
Once Pete had the covers fully off, his smirk grew as he carefully shuffled down the bed. Confusion once again took a hold of his features as he saw his boyfriend wearing shorts; neither usually wore anything when they went to sleep, especially if the night went Pete’s way. Brushing it off with a shrug of his shoulders figuring Kao went to get a drink in the night, Pete started to slowly pull the shorts down the pale legs, pausing once when Kao started to stir but ultimately staying asleep.  
Eventually flinging the pair of shorts into the room (amazed at how much of a heavy sleeper his boyfriend really is), Pete could feel the pit of his stomach heating up when he looked down at Kao’s now-free length.  
Instantly going to massage his hands into Kao’s thighs, Pete started to kiss up his body, ears waiting to hear Kao wake up.  
After a few kisses, Pete’s eyes finally locked on to his boyfriends now-open ones. But before letting the other say anything about the situation, Pete kissed his boyfriend with hunger, the innocent face looking up at him in surprise sending him crazy.  
Taking a few seconds to wake up fully and get a hold on his current situation, Kao started to kiss back; eyes fluttering back closed as his hands reached up to grasp at Pete’s back.  
Pete left one hand on Kao’s thigh while the other snaked upwards to grip tightly on the back of Kao’s neck, pulling him impossibly closer.  
Breaking the kiss as soon as he had started it, Pete began to kiss back down his boyfriend’s chest, rapidly reaching where his hand was pinching the soft skin of Kao’s inner thigh.  
“Shit, Tay, good morning to y-“  
“What did you just call me?” Pete instantly cut his boyfriend off, his voice lined with anger from the start as he pulled away, Kao immediately missing the rough contact Pete had been giving him.  
“What do you mea-“  
“Are you cheating on me?” Pete had now backed off the bed, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.  
“No, of course not! Why would you think that?” Trying to understand what was happening, the man led on the bed sat up and stared at his boyfriend in confusion. Pete threw his hands up in exasperation,  
“Why do you think? You just moaned someone else’s name in bed Kao.” Pete’s voice started to waver with anger, the thought of the one he loved with everything he had cheating on him was something he never thought he would have to experience.  
“What? Who’s Kao? Tay, its me, New.” New started to move down the bed, worry setting in as he grew more and more concerned for his boyfriend. He kept his voice calm, not wanting to further freak out Tay.  
“Who the fuck is New and stop calling me Tay. I’m Pete.” Pete almost spat the foreign name as it rolled off his tongue, hating the word. He then started to pace the room, only now noticing the different surrounding he was in. The layout was completely different, the pictures he appeared to be in he had no recollection of them happening, the colours of the walls were in no way similar. Starting to feel lightheaded, Pete walked towards the door in hopes to find the kitchen for some water. He took one last look at Kao, or New as he called himself, his eyes threatening to water as he turned away; upset with how the man in front of him looked so familiar but felt so much like a stranger. He hoped that this was all a dream, he didn’t believe that Kao would cheat on him. Ever, period. Kao loved only him and he loved only Kao. Whatever was happening now wasn’t real - it couldn’t be. 

New was about to respond when he watched Pete leave the room instead. He could feel his heart breaking with the look Tay, or Pete, gave him. It was if he didn’t even recognise him anymore. New pushed down the tears that were waiting to be spilled and focused more on getting up to check his boyfriend was okay.  
As he rushed to get off the bed and put some clothes on, New was at a loss with what was happening. Was it all a dream? One really, really realistic dream. God, he hoped so. 

 

Tay

Waking up to the steady rise and fall of his boyfriends chest, Kao smiled to himself as he tightened his grip before lifting his top half up to sit against the headboard. He looked down at the sleeping body, the soft smile never once wavering off his lips. Tearing his eyes away, Kao went to pick up his phone and read the time, 7:24am. Opening his phone to turn off his 7:30am alarm that he always woke up beforehand, Kao carefully slipped out of bed and put on a pair of shorts. He looked over his shoulder and laughed to himself as he saw Pete roll over to a position that did not look comfortable in the slightest.  
Stretching his arms above his head, Kao headed for the ensuite bathroom to start getting ready for his 9am class.  
Once he walked through the already open door, he placed himself in front of the sink and started to pour himself a glass of water from the tap. Just as he took his first sip, Kao heard a shout come from the bedroom,  
“Shit, New. Why didn’t you wake me? We’re gonna be so late.” Kao furrowed his brows as he settled the glass down on the counter, and took confused steps back into the bedroom - who’s New?  
What greeted his eyes was something he was not expecting to see this early in the morning.  
As he stepped into the bedroom, he saw his boyfriend jumping out of bed and putting on a pair of jeans as quick as could. So quick in fact that he ended up falling over. Kao instantly rushed over to him, bending down with half-worry-half-amusement, wrapping an arm over his shoulders.  
“Pete, you have an afternoon class and it’s only half seven, you aren’t gonna be late?” Kao’s words sounded like a question due to how confused he was with his boyfriend’s actions.  
Who Kao thought was Pete immediately turned his head to face Kao,  
“Pete? Classes? Have you hit your head or something, New?” Kao laughed aloud, him choosing to come back to the name ‘New’ Pete seemed so intent on calling him.  
“You realise you’re the one who fell over, right?” Kao started to pull the both of them up once he knew his idiot of a boyfriend wasn’t seriously injured. He was about to ask about the whole ‘New’ thing but, Pete spoke before he could.  
“Yeah I’m fine by the way,” Pete playfully shoved his shoulder into Kao, smiling subtly as he did so before continue to speak, “but you’re still acting weird.”  
With the two now sat on the edge of the bed, Kao raised his eyebrows, him thinking the same thing about Pete.  
“How so?”  
“Well for one, you’re calling me Pete. You haven’t forgotten my name is Tay, have you?” Tay watched as Kao shook his head in confusion, his face showing no signs on joking. Tay just hoped New was being super dedicated to this whole joke, not that it was funny, but what was he supposed to do if he was being serious?  
“But you’re name is Pete, I don’t know who Tay is.” Kao spoke with certainty, there was no mistaking who is boyfriend was.  
“If anyone’s being weird it’s you for calling me New. What’s up with that, have you forgotten that my name is Kao?” Tay looked at the person beside him in disbelief, not believing New would keep up this act for this long seeing the reaction it was getting.  
He sighed deeply as he looked away, his eyes scanning the room he thought was his own and them scrunching up when he realised he wasn’t in his own room. Tay’s eyes eventually landed on a picture on the bedside table. He reached over to have a closer look and looked even more confused when he saw himself and New with an older guy who he had never seen before; the three of them were smiling and looked so happy.  
“Who’s this?” Tay asked with genuine curiosity with a hint of worry lacing his words as to why he couldn’t remember who it was. Kao dropped his eyes to his lap, slowly loosening his grip on Pete’s, or rather, Tay’s hand.  
“That’s us and Pete’s dad, but you aren’t Pete are you?” Tay watched as Kao let go of his hand completely, the warmth leaving instantly. He looked up to meet Kao’s eyes but they were still looking downwards.  
With a saddened look cast across both of their features, Tay shook his head slowly.  
“And you aren’t New.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if there was any confusion between who was who, specifically new/kao, i tried to limit using their actual names but i ran out of different ways to call them😂  
> still hope you’re enjoying it and fingers crossed chapter 3 wont be too long!


	3. Chapter 3

Pete/New

“Tay! Where are you going?” New called out to Pete as he sped out of the bedroom, worry being so plainly evident. As his feet quickly grew closer to wherever Pete was, New could hear a grumble in response,

“Stop calling me that, I’m Pete.” Pete had no problem in sharing his anger with New, his tone was deep, intimidating and one that New had never heard his boyfriend use before.   
Pete ran his hands through his hair as he took rest beside the kitchen sink, eyes wandering around the room to see where the glasses were kept. His fists ached with the need to hit something to vent out his frustration, the wall opposite him looking particularly appealing. 

Before his feet could take more than two steps towards the wall, New was stood beside him and started to outstretch his arm to wrap around Pete’s shoulders. Pete instantly recoiled; his whole body turning away from New. New could only look at Pete in dismay, upset beginning to take over his features. With slow movements, New stepped away from the counter and headed towards where the glasses were kept; he figured Pete needed a drink just as much as he did. 

Hearing New move, Pete looked up to see where he was going. His eyes followed the small strides New took as he made his way back to where he was originally, only now with two glasses in his hands. New made eye contact with Pete as he placed the glasses on the surface; he couldn’t quite make out what was behind Pete’s eyes, he sensed confusion but that wasn’t a secret to either of them. His steely gaze hid far more than he was feeling.

New then dropped his eyes down to Pete’s hands that were gripping onto the countertop, so tight that his knuckles were strikingly paler than what they should be. Following his eye movements, Pete looked down at his hands and the glass placed beside them. Saying nothing, Pete picked up the glass and held it under the tap as he poured himself a drink. 

“Ta-Pete,” New caught himself just in time, even though the name ‘Pete’ sounded strange on his tongue, “what’s going on?” New tried to sound calm, but his own confusion got the better of him as his voice sounded slightly irritated by the lack of answers presented.   
Pete huffed as he placed the glass on the counter with more force than he intended, the question having such a blatant answer that it was ridiculous to even ask it.

“If I knew, do you still think I’d be here with you.” He was blunt with his words and didn’t once look at New. 

WIth an exasperated (yet also small) sigh, New folded his arms over his chest while his back leaned against the edge of the kitchen surface.   
Pete finally turned his head to peak a glance at New and seeing him with his eyes closed, with him looking so helpless and sad, Pete was almost tempted to give New a hug. Even though he knew the situation was beyond messed up, the man stood before him looked exactly like his Kao and seeing him so hurt made Pete more protective than usual. He stopped himself though, knowing full well this wasn’t Kao and he wasn’t about to hug someone who wasn’t his boyfriend. Suddenly Pete was reminded of what happened in the bedroom minutes earlier, a look of disgust flashing across his face as the memories of kissing someone else came to the forefront of his mind.   
With that thought in mind, Pete could only think of one thing to do; get away from New as quickly as possible. 

Barging purposefully past the unsuspecting victim, Pete made straight for the bedroom to put on some clothes before he left the apartment for good - he’d be damned if he didn’t find a way back to Kao, back to his home. 

Nearly losing his footing, New’s eyes flew open at the harsh contact, them taking a second or two to fully comprehend what was happening. And once he did, New instantly started taking steps towards the bedroom - he wasn’t about to let Pete go, he needed answers and he couldn’t get them alone.   
“Pete, what are doing?” New asked as he stood in the doorway, a hint of authority lingering in his voice. Pete rolled his eyes at the question and kept quiet as he searched for clothes that weren’t completely different from his own style.   
New scowled slightly at the silence and decided to keep talking, assuming he’d eventually annoy Pete into responding. 

“You can’t just leave, you know.” 

Still nothing.

“If you don’t know me, how can you be sure you’ll know anyone here?” Pete almost laughed at what New said, his head turning to the doorway as if he was curious to see where New would go next. New smiled to himself, happy to see at least some recognition of his words. He knew working together was vital to understand what the hell was going on, however he also knew that both himself and Pete would absolutely hate working with each other. New found Pete rude and aggressive and Pete found New annoying and stubborn. It was a terrible combination of two people, but they’d have to make it work if they wanted to see Tay and Kao again. 

New looked over at Pete who was throwing shirts in every direction until he found one he was satisfied with, and New chuckled as he saw small parts of Tay in him. New then caught himself thinking of Tay and wondering what he would do and say in this situation. He’d talk about his bad luck and how it was all about the mirror breaking. He would then overthink and spiral, ideas popping into his head every few seconds, each one more absurd than the last. 

Then it hit New.   
It was almost as if a lightbulb went off above his head as New nearly jumped at a realisation. Pete raised his eyebrows, an unasked question to what New was so intrigued about. 

“I know exactly what Tay would say if he were in this situation.” 

 

Tay/Kao

“I swapped lives with your boyfriend!” Tay exclaimed as the thought popped into his head. Him and Kao had been having a fairly calm talk about what was going on, or more rather Kao trying to calm Tay down as he overthought everything.   
Kao simply looked on in surprise as he watched Tay leap from the bed with an idea he seemed pretty keen on. 

“What do you mean ‘swapped lives’?” Kao asked, not following Tay’s train of thought at all.   
“Well look at what’s happened. I woke up with someone who looks exactly like my boyfriend but isn’t him, and I look exactly like your boyfriend but I’m not him. I can bet you that Pete is with New right now.” Tay spoke with certainty, his confidence growing as he voiced his thoughts aloud. He looked at Kao to gauge what he was feeling about the sudden epiphany; he was greeted with furrowed brows and a mouth hanging agape. 

Tay knew what he had said was far-fetched but he couldn’t think of anything else it could be. It was all far too real for it to be a dream and with all his bad luck yesterday, Tay was sure of it. However, Kao was not. Sure, he believed in bad luck in the sense of when you walk under a ladder and you can’t find that money you left in your pocket, but not when it meant travelling across universes. He looked at Tay in disbelief and Tay sighed as he went to sit back down beside him. 

“I know it sounds ridiculous but just think about it.” Tay desperately wanted to Kao to believe him, he wanted closure on what happened so they could get back to their significant others as quick as possible. Seeing Kao but not being able to hug him, kiss him or hold his hand was torturing Tay; he knew he missed New when they had separate works, but this was on another level. Kao could sense exactly what Tay was feeling since he was feeling the same thing. He loved his boyfriend and all he wanted was to be able to see him again. Though he didn’t wholeheartedly believe that Tay’s theory was right, on the off chance it was, then it’d all be worth it. 

“Look, I don’t know if what you’re saying is true because, yes, it is ridiculous, but even if there’s a million to one chance of it working, we have to try. For Pete and for New.” Tay started smiling wide as soon as he heard Kao finish his words, it was almost as if they were one step closer even though they had so much further to go. Kao couldn’t not smile in return, Tay’s toothy grin being far too contagious. 

“So what do we do now?” Kao asked, wanting to get on top of this as quickly as they could. Tay’s smile faltered as he thought about it, what should they do next? After a minute or so of Kao watching Tay think, Tay spoke up,

“We should test the theory first, see if I’m right or not.” Tay started to lift himself off the bed and headed towards the door. His actions paused when he heard Kao speak up, still sitting on the bed,  
“And how are we going to do that?” Tay turned on his heels, resting his hands on the bed post.  
“We need to go outside to see if anything, anyone, is familiar to me. If not then we know I’m not supposed to be here.” Tay explained himself as he saw Kao rise off the bed too, nodding in response. Once Tay had Kao’s confirmation of understanding, he immediately started to walk towards the door again, his hand on the door handle. 

“Tay.” Kao hadn’t moved from beside the bed and his voice had a hint of amusement in it; it was almost as if he was holding back a laugh. Tay turned back around and saw Kao’s outstretched hand pointing into an open drawer. 

“Yeah?” Tay sounded impatient, he just wanted to get on with figuring out what to do and not have chitchat in the bedroom of his not-boyfriends.   
Kao now actually laughed, not able to hold it back any longer. Tay’s impulsiveness reminded him of a certain someone. 

“You’re still half-naked.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope yall enjoyed this latest chapter, its start to pick up from here so get ready!


	4. Chapter 4

Pete/New

“You’re kidding me, right?” An empty laugh left Pete’s mouth as he heard New’s absurd theory as to what was happening, he hated the situation he was in but hearing New say something so ridiculous was enough to lighten his mood for a split second.

“There’s no way, no fucking way, I’ve swapped lives with your boyfriend." Pete sounded irritated more than anything, he at least thought New would be serious about this. He turned his back to New as he started pulling up a pair of jeans, cursing under his breath when the zipper got stuck.  
Trying to reason with Pete, New took steps into the room with his hands outstretched as he tried to explain his train of thought.

"I know it's difficult to process-"

"Difficult to process? You're trying to tell me I'm in another universe!" Pete gave up fumbling with shirt buttons and instantly spun around; his voice steadily getting louder as he cut New off. New's eyes widened at Pete's sudden outburst, quickly getting frustrated with Pete's attitude.

"Look, if you don't even want to try to get to back to Kao then-"  
For the second time that morning, Pete interrupted New with an even louder and even angrier voice; how dare New say he doesn't even want to try to get back to Kao when that's all he wanted to do.

"Don't talk about Kao." Though Pete's words were short and cold, New could see the unhealthy mix of temper and melancholy in his dark eyes. He debated taking steps closer, but seeing Pete with his clenched jaw, he ultimately decided not to. He found Pete to be unpredictable and he wasn't about to get a get a black eye because of it. Instead, New stayed at the end of the bed, both hands using the foot-board as a support, and thought about how to get through to Pete as he let his head hang low. 

Pete had finally finished buttoning up the shirt he threw on, and fell back against the bed as he moved to put some socks on. Every movement of Pete's were heavy and laboured; he was finding it difficult to stay level-headed in this situation. Pete snuck a glance up to New to see what he was doing, slight disappointment to see he was still there, but glad he was keeping quiet.  
With a huff, he stood up and walked across the room (straight past New whose eyes followed Pete's movements), quickly reaching the doorway. 

"Don't you think Kao would b-"

"I said don't talk about Kao." Pete practically growled back at New, finding it unbelievable that New was stupid enough to bring up his boyfriend, again. Pete wanted to punch him, but when he looked at New he could only see Kao. Even though he knew it wasn't actually him, Pete couldn't bring himself to hit him. He also knew he would never hear the end of it from Kao. A small smile crept onto his lips as he thought of his boyfriend but it faded just as quick as it grew.  
New just turned around and stared Pete directly in the eyes, answering back almost instantly, 

"Don't you think he would be trying everything and anything to get back to you?" New's voice was strong and confident, he wasn't about to back down, there was far too much at stake to just give up.  
Pete internally groaned, hating how New was making sense but his prideful nature stopped him from agreeing. 

"Don't act like you know him!" Pete had now begun to start shouting, his fists clenching at his sides and heavy breathing to keep at least some calm in him. 

"I may not know Kao, but I know what it's like to be in love!" Though New didn't quite reach Pete's level of shout, he was growing tired of Pete stubbornness and his voice showed that. He ran his hands through his hair as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. 

"There's not a thing I wouldn't do for Tay and I don't doubt for a second that he wouldn't do the same. I know nothing about you and Kao, but I'm sure you both feel the same." New paused as he watched Pete shift his weight from foot to foot, his words seemingly affecting him. New carried on, hopeful this would get through to Pete, as he took a cautious step forward.

"I have no idea what is happening, but I will do anything to get back to Tay because if I don't try what kind of person would I be? I'm not giving up on him and you can't give up on Kao - we have too much to lose otherwise." New finished his words with watery eyes, the weight of the situation dawning on him - Tay was somewhere else and not with him. Though New had been trying to get Pete on his side this whole time, up until what he had just said, he still believed it was all a dream deep down. Now it all felt too real and he really couldn't keep the denial up anymore. He just hoped his words meant as much to Pete as they did to him. 

And they did.  
Pete looked down at his feet, his whole body slowly untensing and New's words echoing around his mind. Of course he had to try, no matter how stupid it seemed, if it was for Kao it was worth it. 

Still with unease in his body, Pete allowed himself to relax slightly as he leant against the door-frame rather than walking through it. He didn't have to like New, but he understood how he felt and that was enough to know he could trust him.

"Okay what do we do?" Pete's voice cracked as he spoke and he looked up to see New looking back at a him. Relief flooded over New's features; they were finally getting somewhere. 

"That I'm not so sure. Tay and I were planning to go to a temple this afternoon so we could start there?" New posed the question and was happy to see Pete nodding along in agreement. 

"Yeah, that actually sounds like a good idea. Why wait for later on though, why don't we go now?" Now Pete had finally gotten on board with the idea, he wanted it tried and tested as soon as possible. 

"Shit."  
It suddenly hit New of why they were going in the afternoon, and Pete was not going to like it. Not at all.  
Pete furrowed his brows and gestured to New to explain himself. 

"Well because we have work."

"Then we'll just call in sick." Pete shrugged his shoulders indifferently, missing one day of work wasn't going to hurt anyone, especially with this good a reason. New wished it was that simple, but he had never taken a sick day in his life and neither had Tay. Even when the pair had food poisoning they still went to film for a show. 

"It's not that easy, we've never taken a day off even when really needed to. Our boss will know somethings up and anyway, we only have to go in to do some paperwork and general stuff. Thank god we don't have filming today." New sat back against the bottom of the bed with his last sentence as more of an afterthought, one that Pete didn't take notice of; his mind was focusing on other things New had said.

"Wait, our?" Pete was beginning to put two and two together.

"Don't tell me you and Tay work together, at the same place." Pete nearly threw his hands up; even if he had to go work, he had to do it with New. 

"Yeah we do, and we have to go. So you know what that means, right?" New sounded almost nervous but in his mind he felt far more jaded by the answer to his own question.  
Taking a minute to figure out what New meant, Pete cocked his head as he thought; you could practically see the cogs whirring in his mind. New watched and waited for Pete to come to the realisation. It was then that Pete's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised to sit high on his forehead; had the situation not been so serious, it would've been comical. He didn't even have to say anything for New to know he had reached what New had meant.  
Pete shifted himself so his back now leant against the door-frame rather than his side, his head tilted back and a deep sigh leaving his mouth. 

"There's no talking you out of this is there?" Though it was a question, Pete didn't make it sound like one considering he already knew the answer. New shook his head, relieved to know he wouldn't have to convince Pete for the second time this morning. 

"Nope, so I suggest we start getting ready. You can have a shower first," New pointed in the vague direction of the bathroom, "and I'll start on breakfast; any preference?" New moved around the bed to pick up his phone and started heading out of the bedroom, squeezing past Pete who still hadn't moved from the doorway. New got his answer as he was walking away, seeming not at all surprised by the answer despite only knowing Pete for less than an hour.

"Coffee. Black."  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope yall enjoyed this chapter, the next one will just be tay and kao so look forward to that!!


	5. Chapter 5

Tay/Kao

With the sun beaming down, Tay and Kao walked through streets in what started as an attempt to see if Tay could recognise anything or anyone from his supposed own universe. After a few minutes, it became quite clear that Tay didn't feel anything familiar about the place he was in. Once Tay had stated that fact aloud, the two began to talk and, despite their misfortunate situation, found a way to enjoy each others company. After a few minutes of chatting about nothing in particular, the pair had come across a café that Kao loved. He extended an arm in front of Tay, stopping both their movements.

"We can chill here for a little bit, if you want. They do amazing coffee here." Kao smiled brightly and Tay nodded in agreement; he suddenly remembered he hadn't had anything to drink or eat yet this morning. He moved to sit opposite Kao and sank into the chair, his hands immediately going to fidget with the cutlery laid out in front of him. He let his eyes wander and got pleasantly surprised at how pretty it was. 

"I wish I had my camera, it's so pretty here." Tay spoke as he looked around the street, looking up at the way the sun shined down on all the different stalls, the way the people mingled together and the bright colours jumping out at him. He looked around in bewilderment, his eyes smiling alongside his lips. Tay heard a small huff of a laugh sound from opposite him,  
"You do photography too?" Kao asked as followed Tay's eyes; he was so used to the surroundings that he never fully appreciated the beauty of it.  
Tay nodded his head eagerly, his hands itching to get a hold on a camera. His hands automatically went to his pockets, expecting to feel his phone, but instead felt nothing. His smile faltered as he remembered what was happening, Kao realised and tried to keep his mind off their current situation.

“Do you take more portraits or landscapes?” Kao asked and he instantly saw Tay’s face light up once more as he talked about his favourite past time.

“I prefer taking landscapes, but me and my friends are actors so I take a lot of portraits of them for their socials and stuff.” As Tay thought about his friends, his smile saddened but he didn’t let himself get completely bogged down by missing them. He knew he couldn’t get back to them this instant, so he didn’t want to be negative for not just his own sake, but also for Kao - he was going through the exact same thing. The best thing for the both of them was to be as positive as they could be. 

“An actor, wow. I always wondered what it’d be like to be famous.” Kao broke Tay from his thoughts with his curious words. Tay turned his nose up at the word ‘famous’ (he hated being called that, it made him feel superior, almost, which he definitely wasn't), but let out a small laugh at Kao’s notion. 

“Yeah, it's a pretty cool industry really, I've met so many interesting people through it." Tay looked over at Kao who was already looking at him in astonishment; not that he'd ever tell Tay, but Kao was feeling ever so slightly star struck even though he had never met him before. 

"Is it how you met New?" Kao hesitated before asking, he didn't want to make Tay upset but his curious (or nosy as Pete called it) nature took over and asked the question before he could stop himself. Kao offered a small smile in Tay's direction, a silent apology if it was too personal a question, or a subject he just didn't want to think about it. He saw a downcast look flash across Tay's features, and on instinct he went to outstretch his hand, stopping himself midway when he realised that Tay wasn't Pete. He caught Tay's eyes as he quickly drew back his hand, placing it firmly in his lap. 

"Sorry, you probably don't want to talk about it. I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's fine. Really. It's not like New's a taboo topic." Tay laughed to try and lighten the mood, it working as Kao instantly relaxed, a soft smile toying with his lips. 

"But to answer your question, yes we did. We started as just friends but we spent so much time together that we grew into what we are now." Kao found himself latching onto every word Tay said, he could tell how much New meant to Tay with the way he talked about their relationship. He leaned forward and crossed his arms on the table, a huge smile playing on his lips when he saw Tay doing the same. 

"Wow, I wish I could say Pete and I had such a sweet build-up to our relationship, but the start of us dating was definitely not as romantic." Kao laughed as he spoke, knowing there wasn't anything he would ever change about his and Pete's history; not one single bit. 

"I'm sure how you and Pete came to be is just as sweet as mine and New's." Tay looked taken aback when he heard Kao practically snort, "Sweet is not quite how I'd describe it." Tay quirked a brow, a silent question for Kao to elaborate.

"We didn't exactly start as friends, hell, I was sure that he hated my guts but then one night it became _very_ clear that he did not _hate_ my guts." The way Kao was emphasising some words helped Tay fill in the blanks as he nodded as head and slipped out an 'ah', understanding what happened that night between Kao and Pete. 

"So yeah, not quite as sweet." Kao's word were light and humorous, the atmosphere shared between the pair comfortable and not at all awkward. Tay then leaned back into his chair, his arms draped over the arms of the chair, and joked, 

"It may not be the sweetest but it sounds like something straight out of a drama, my company would absolutely love it." 

"Seriously?" Kao struggled to believe that his and Pete's relationship was tv worthy and found the idea hilarious. 

"Oh 100%. From enemies to lovers, the audience would go wild." Looking at how Kao was reacting, Tay couldn't help but laugh; the way his eyes were furrowed and how his lips were stretched into a confused smile was beyond comical. Tay was suddenly very glad that Kao wasn't being negative or gloomy about the situation, he was glad that the pair could joke about with each other despite having the worst circumstances. He only hoped New could say the same.  
Kao's bright voice then broke Tay out of his thoughts, and his attention was immediately back on the conversation at hand.

"Well if you ever pitch the idea to your boss, you and New could play me and-"  
"Pete! Kao!" Both Tay and Kao instantly looked up to where the names had been shouted from, Kao relaxing when he saw San walking up to them. Tay, on the other hand, practically jumped out of his seat when he saw who it was.

"Mild! You're here t-"  
"Hey _San_." Kao shot a look at Tay, hoping Tay quickly figured out that this was not who he though. San looked at Pete in confusion before looking at Kao for answers. Kao awkwardly laughed as he tried to think of how to get around not telling San everything; she had a way of getting to the bottom of things. As Kao was racking his brain on how to respond, Tay got there before him.

"Oh hey San, I meant the weather is quite mild this morning, don't you think?" Tay quickly looked over at Kao, subtly shrugging his shoulders. Kao winced at Tay's words, that sounded like the farthest thing from Pete, San is definitely going to suspect something.  
Tay's words didn't help San with her confusion at all, her eyes flitting between the pair trying to figure out what was going on. 

"I guess? Is everything alright with you two? Pete it's not like you to be up so early. What are you two even doing together?" San moved to sit down beside the pair, her bag dropping to the floor as she kept her eyes trained on Tay; Tay shuffled under her gaze, not daring to make eye contact.  
Kao spoke up before Tay could say anything and San's eyes left who she thought was Pete, Tay quietly sighing in relief. 

"No, we're fine. And I stayed over at Pete's 'cause we didn't finish our assignment until late at night. I wanted to go get coffee but I needed Pete to drive me." Kao smiled at San in the hopes that she would back off and not ask any further questions. Kao also hoped his words helped Tay figure out that San didn't know that him and Pete were dating, if Tay accidentally said something and San found out, all hell would break loose when Pete came back.  
Though San still believed something was up, she dropped it; annoying Pete this early in the morning was never a wise choice. 

"Well at least you got it finished." San smiled sweetly and she looked back to Tay to see him nodding his head.

"Yeah, it took us long enough." Because Tay was trying his best not to let San see how much he was freaking out, his voice sounded dull and cold, almost. He hated it since he never liked to be impolite, but he looked at Kao to see him smiling encouragingly - the distant tone to Tay's words sounded just like Pete, especially Pete in the morning. Kao switched to look at San and saw her visibly look reassured that nothing was the matter. In his head, Kao was punching the air in victory. 

"Well anyway, I've got to go. I'll see you both later at Uni though." As San went to stand up and tuck the chair back under the table, Kao suddenly remembered Uni. What was Tay going to do? He didn't think about it right this second, and instead focused on saying his farewells to San. 

"Yeah of course, see you later!" Kao lightly nudged Tay's foot for him to do the same and Tay instantly looked up and smiled at San.

"See you later San." 

San smiled at them both before turning and carried walking on past the café. Once San was safely out of earshot and eyesight, Kao dropped his head into his hands.

"That was a close one."

"She looked exactly like one of my friends." Tay sank lower against his chair as his words sounded much like a thought spoken aloud. Kao lifted his head and rested his chin on his palms,  
"Guess parallel universes are a thing then." Tay barely nodded at Kao's words, he was still in his head thinking about how he thought that was Mild. He thought he wouldn't have to be alone for a split second, for a moment he had hope that he finally had someone he knew here. But having that hope crushed not even a second later, made Tay realise how alone he actually he was. He then looked over at Kao to see him smiling at him, eyes warm and comforting. He shook his head and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, he had Kao and that was enough to see him through until he could see New again.  
And with that thought Tay picked up the menu and scanned through the items, asking Kao what was good here and the pair slipped back into a casual conversation.  
Maybe he wasn't completely alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry there was a bit of a wait for this one, college started up for me again so i dont have as much time to write as i would like, but i hope you enjoyed this latest chapter!!  
> hopefully i'll update soon, definitely within the week!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall, sorry for the long wait but writers block can be a bitch but we're here and i already have a headstart on the other chapters so fingers crossed for (kind of) consistent updates
> 
> enjoy!!

Pete/New 

 

Having been in the car for about 15 minutes now, Pete still couldn't sit comfortably; not being able to drive was frustrating but New had been adamant about not letting anyone other than himself drive his Nong Polar. Pete was still none the wiser about why New had called his car that, but he didn’t bother to ask since he figured New would make it into a full-blown story and he internally groaned at the mere thought. Instead, he shoved his chin on his palm and stared out the window, his face becoming even more irritated as he saw that they (along with all the other cars) were at a stand-still. 

"God, is it always this busy?" Pete was growing more and more agitated the longer they stayed stuck in traffic, his voice sounding similar to an impatient child. A long sigh dragged out of New at the sixth time Pete had asked that question and his head wanted to lean forward and beep the horn in annoyance. 

"Are you always this impatient?" New looked over to see Pete looking out the window with a what he could only presume was a sulky face. New earned a huff in response and he gave up trying to talk with Pete and went back to driving when the car in front started moving. 

The pair sat in silence for a while with just the radio in the background; New concentrating fully on the road and Pete scowling out the window with the occasional side-glance over at New. 

"Pete?" After a few minutes New spoke up as a thought popped into his head. Pete inwardly groaned, quite enjoying the silence the pair had been sat in, but replied with a small, irritated 'what?' 

"You know I'm going to have to teach you how to be like Tay, right?" Pete hit his head back against the head-rest, the idea of learning how to be someone else a tiring thought, let alone when that person was your boyfriend's look-a-like's boyfriend. 

Back at the condo, New had proposed this idea while they ate breakfast (or more rather while New ate breakfast and Pete drank his black coffee with a deadpan expression) and Pete had expressed his dislike for the idea then. He even tried convincing New to skip one day off work again; it was safe to say that New not-so-gently shut that idea down, again. 

"Look, I know you don't like it but you can't go in there and be an asshole because Tay is the farthest thing from an asshole. You can be a dick to me when we aren't at work but in that building, you're gonna put on a smile and say good morning to everyone whether you like it or not." New's words weren't loud nor were they aggressive, but they carried an air of seriousness and dominance. He sounded so strong-willed that Pete almost didn't want to go against them - almost being a key word. 

Shaking his head, Pete whipped his head towards New with his lips set in a straight line, 

"Did you just call me an asshole?" Though Pete's voice wasn't loud, it was most definitely aggressive, completely shell-shocked that New just outright called him that. 

"Yes and I stand by it completely." New was blunt and his voice lacked any hint of remorse; Pete could only widen his eyes in shock. He figured he would at least get an apology even if it was half-assed. 

Taking the silence Pete was taking to fully accept the fact that New had called him an asshole and showed no signs of saying sorry, New reiterated his initial thought with a far more pressing tone to his voice. 

"You don't have to be a Saint, I'm not expecting any miracles, but you cannot go round looking like you're some grumpy teen." Towards the end of his words, a sense of humour plucked itself through New's voice; being able to insult Pete to prove a point was quite enjoyable for him. Evidently, Pete picked up on how entertaining this was for New as he crossed his arms in order to stop himself from punching New in the arm. New noticed from the corner of his eye and smiled to himself, something Pete did not miss. 

"You know most people act nice when they ask for something, not insult the person every chance they get." Pete grumbled his words as he lowered his head, toes tapping the footwell in annoyance. New snickered under his breath as he stopped his car once again, the traffic seeming extra bad this morning; New could only wonder why as his eyes shifted to look over at Pete. 

"Okay, I might take back calling you a dick, but I'd say the whole grumpy teen thing fits pretty well." New could only laugh more as Pete furrowed his brow and tightened his crossed arms at his words. Pete wondered why he hadn't hit New at this point, had it been anyone else saying this about him he would've put them in their place right then and there. He then thought that it was probably because Kao had said that he reminded him of a broody teen once or twice; his face softening slightly. With thoughts of Kao in his mind, Pete begrudgingly sighed and unfolded his arms – knowing Kao and Tay would be getting on like a wildfire made him realise Kao would only give him hell if he didn't even try to get on with New. 

"Fine, tell me all about Tay." New ignored the obvious reluctance in Pete's voice and instead focused on the fact that he had finally agreed. Maybe the rest of the car drive wasn't going to be as boring as it has been. 

So from then on, New rattled on and on about Tay. Most points were of importance that would help Pete pretend to be Tay, but some were not. New got lost on a tangent more than once (much to Pete's dismay) and found himself telling stories about Tay that Pete did not find amusing at all. One point that Pete found extremely unamusing was that he had to act like a couple with New. It's not that they were out, but New had tried to explain that long before him and Tay had actually gotten together, everybody teased them about being a couple. Looking back on it, New did admit he and Tay were far closer than any best friends, but then once they started dating, they couldn't stop being close at work so them being all cute and relationship-y had stuck. Pete had run his hands through his hair upon hearing all this and debated making a run for it by jumping out the car, despite it still moving. They did, however, end up bonding over the fact that it wasn't necessary to befriend every single person they bumped into; New happy they were finally getting along and Pete annoyed at himself for starting to hate New less and less. 

After a further 20 minutes or so, the pair had finally reached New's workplace and New turned to face Pete as he unbuckled his seatbelt. 

"Well we're here, are you ready to be Tay?" New could see Pete was still struggling with having to pretend to be someone else, not that he could complain, at least he was trying. 

Pete let the question sink in for a few seconds while his fingers picked at a loose thread on the hem of his t-shirt, quickly thinking over everything New had told him. New had said towards the end that as long as he kept a smile plastered on his lips and did something borderline romantic with New every so often, he should be on for a winner. 

With a final thought, Pete looked over at New who was smiling encouragingly at him and nodded confidently – if he was going to do this, he was going to do it with 101%.


	7. Chapter 7

Pulling keys out of his pocket, Tay went to unlock the door to Kao's place; Kao had suggested for Tay to stay at his place while he was in lesson. They had stayed at the quaint coffee shop for a while after San had left, but Kao noticed the time and realised he had a lesson to get to. And instead of them risking a lot for Tay to stay with him, Kao told him to go back to their apartment and wait there. Tay agreed instantly, the mere thought of acting as Pete and not letting anyone get suspicious sent his stress levels through the roof. So, he and Kao drove back towards the apartment until Kao had to venture off to Uni, leaving Tay to his own devices. 

Finally stepping through the door, Tay closed it behind him and leant back against it, a deep sigh leaving his mouth. As he looked around the unfamiliar home, he felt a pang in his chest with thoughts of New immediately clouding his mind. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wooden frame, deep breaths in and deep breaths out. Now with Kao gone, Tay was completely alone for the first time after waking up in this other universe and he hated it. He could feel himself beginning to spiral and he knew he needed to stop that from happening. Though the circumstance really called for crisis, Tay had to keep strong not only for him but also for the three other people involved. For any chance to get back to where they wanted, needed, to be, he needed to be calm and rational. 

With that notion, Tay pushed himself off the door and went to get a drink, figuring a glass of water was only going to help if nothing else. He dropped the keys on the table beside the door and headed for the kitchen. His movements were slow and his lips stay set in a straight line, thoughts of how to sort this mess out racing through his mind. 

So far gone in his thoughts, Tay didn't realise the glass was overflowing with water until his top was getting wet. He looked down to see the water spilling over the edge of the glass, falling in to the sink and splashing back up at him.  
Mentally cursing himself, Tay placed the glass in the sink and went to the bedroom to change.  
Getting lost as his feet brought him to the bathroom instead, Tay was steadily growing more and more disheartened. He wondered how New was dealing with all this. From what Kao was saying, Pete could be stubborn and sometimes aggressive, especially in stressful situations. And with this particular situation being one of the most stressful ones Tay could think of, he could imagine New was struggling. Sure, New could also be stubborn but he never really got super stressed over things.; whenever something bad happened, New could keep calm and think logically to get through it, whereas Tay got anxious and found it difficult to focus on anything else. But if Pete was also going to be just as stubborn and potentially hostile towards New, Tay knew his boyfriend would snap. New never really got angry in terms of shouting and physicality, but he sure knew how to put someone in their place. Whether it's through complete disregard for the other person or words used specifically to dig in deep, New had his ways to let someone know he's not happy with them. 

Tay felt a smile creep onto his face, suddenly confused as to why he was worrying over New. New was one of the most strong-willed and determined people Tay had ever met; not even Pete could stop him from getting what he wanted.  
Finally, beginning to feel some ease, Tay found himself standing in front of a dresser in Kao's bedroom. Opening one of the drawers to find it filled with socks, Tay closed it and moved across to another. He pulled it out and saw a collection of tops neatly folded, an array of colours filling the small space they occupied. He figured this was Kao's drawer, the organised set-up seeming to match up with Kao's personality. 

Sifting through the technicolour of cloth, Tay made sure to keep it as tidy as he possibly could. As his hands moved to pick some tops up as to see what was underneath them, Tay noticed something small and black stuffed behind at the back of the drawer. Curiosity had always been one of Tay's vices, he struggled to not find out something when the answer was so quick and easy to get. However, in this instance, Tay did cast doubt over whether to actually see what it was, considering this wasn't his home – it wasn't even his universe. But ultimately, Tay placed the pile of tops on top of the dresser and moved his hand to pull out the mysterious article of clothing.  
Expecting a black vest top or something alike, Tay's eyes bugged out of his head when he realised what it was. 

As his hands held it out in front of him, Tay quickly discovered that he was currently holding extremely short shorts and stockings. Stuffing them back in the drawer at the speed of light, Tay grabbed a top at random and slammed the drawer shut. 

Cursing his curious nature, Tay couldn't help but let his mind wander after seeing what he just saw. If that was Kao's drawer then that meant that Kao has worn or will wear that, and Kao looks exactly New. Tay gulped at the thought of New wearing something like that. He was almost sure that New would object but the images Tay was thinking now, it was worth a shot. The black against New's milky skin-

_Buzz buzz._

Tay's head whipped to the sound of Pete's phone, a hand flying to his chest as his breathing quickened; a second of complete irrational worry that someone had caught on to what he found in Kao's drawer.  
Knowing he was alone in the house and he was in the clear, Tay walked around the bed to look at the incoming messages. He thought it might be Kao trying to tell him something but when he read the screen, he saw that there were a few messages from someone called June. 

_Mornin Pete, I'm gonna head up to your place, I've got something to talk to you about._  
_I met San and she said you'd probably be back home by now since Kao has morning class and you don't._  
_See ya in a few!_

Tay dropped the phone on the bed as he wondered what on earth this June wanted to talk about. Did San tell them about her suspicions and now June was on their way to get to the bottom of things? Or was June simply coming up to talk to Pete about something only Pete would know?  
Tay hurriedly changed his t-shirt and paced alongside the bed, muttering to himself as his hands moved through the air in despair.  
He tried to remember everything Kao had said about Pete in an attempt to learn how to be him. His job was an actor, he would have no problem pretending to be someone else; that was the easy part.  
The hard part was trying to get around not knowing things Pete obviously would. If June asked him anything personal, Tay would be at a loss.  
It was only a minute or two later that Tay heard a knock at the door. On instinct, he went to move to open it but soon stopped himself. He could just pretend that he wasn't in and wait until June left.  
Happy with his plan, Tay flopped down on the bed, his eyes staring up at the ceiling.  
Then, a more forceful knock sounded, making Tay jump ever-so-slightly.  
"Pete, I know you're in there. Your car's downstairs." A loud but cheerful voice rang through the condo and was followed by further knocks. Tay stood up and kicked the bed in frustration. He ran his hands through his hair as made his way to the front door, the knocks slowly morphing into a vaguely familiar rhythm.  
"Oh Pete, come on man! I know it's the morning but it's your best bud, June, you gotta open up." Though Tay was beyond stressed at the prospect of conversing with June, he had to admit, the friendly voice made it seem not as daunting. The more he thought about it, the voice sounded familiar but he put that thought to the back of his mind as he continued his way to where the insistent knocks were sounding.   
Now standing at the door, Tay took a deep breath in before he reached out for the door handle. He gripped tightly (his knuckles turning white) before pushing down to swing the door open.  
Just as Tay pulled the door to, a fist from the other side presented itself as it was about to knock for the countless time that morning.  
Tay gulped as he looked up to see who this June looked like.  
His eyes moved up the casually dressed figure until he was greeted with eyes smiling as well as lips. Although the first thing Tay noticed wasn’t the loose fitting t-shirt hanging off the body opposite him, nor was it the bright face and kind eyes.  
No, the first thing Tay noticed was the uncanny resemblance June had to Nicky.  
His morning was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya know, i also imagine what new would look like in those black stockings its one hell of an image  
> anyway, i hope you enjoyed this update!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a gonna be a slightly longer chapter than usual but things are really about to pick up on from here on out so yall can look forward to that!  
> hope you enjoy it and feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts, i love reading what yall have to say!

Pete's eyes flitted around what he could see once the elevator doors opened. He noticed numerous people bustling past yet a strong sense of calm washed over him, never had Pete thought a job could feel so friendly. He shifted his gaze over to New who stood beside him, a small smile offered in attempt to encourage. Pete nodded and the pair started walking down the corridor, a huge grin stuck on his lips and all he could hope was that it didn't look completely fake. 

"Morning you two!" A loud and welcoming voice called over to New and Pete and New immediately replied, his arm nudging Pete to follow suit. 

"Mornin' Off, what're you doing here so early, I thought it was your day off?" New stepped ahead of Pete and went to rest his arms against the small divider between the desks and hallway, Off stood just the other side. Pete, not quite knowing what to do, followed New's footsteps and, remembering what New had said in the car about being borderline relationship-y, put his hands on New's shoulders as he listened to what the tall brunet had to say. His actions were awkward and his face still showed signs of reluctance, but luckily Off didn't pay too much attention to the details of Pete's face. 

"Well Gun was in this morning so I thought I'd tag along." New nodded and smiled towards Off as a small silence ensued. Off then started to take a look at who he thought was Tay, brows furrowing when he noticed how quiet he was being. Even his usual stance of any contact with New seemed forced and now that he thought about it, New seemed on edge too. 

"Hey Peng, you seem quiet, everything alright?" Off even further looked at Pete with confusion when all he got was a blank face in return, it was like he didn't even recognise the name they had been calling each other for years. New noticed the scrutinising look Off had and jabbed his elbow backwards to poke Pete in the stomach, hoping it was enough to make Pete say something, anything. Pete subtly brought his knee up to shove New's leg once he felt the elbow jab his ribs, but kept his smile up as he responded to Off, 

"Oh yeah I'm fine, just a bit tired that’s all. Long night." New was actually surprised at how convincing Pete sounded, not at all expecting him to be _that_ good at acting. Though New was pleasantly surprised at how Pete dug himself out of the hole he had created, Off still seemed somewhat suspicious but just as he was about to ask another question, someone called his name from the other side of the room. He looked over his shoulder and shouted back, 

"I'm coming!" Off turned back around and said goodbye to his friends before walking off in the direction of the voice. 

As soon as Off was out of earshot, New slid around so he was facing Pete rather than standing with his back to him, 

"You're quick on your feet." 

Pete scoffed as his hands withdrew from New's shoulders, 

"What? You wanted me to fail?" New rolled his eyes at Pete's words, for once just hoping for a friendly conversation without snarky remarks. 

"No, it's actually gonna make things a lot of easier, so if you'll stop being so sarcastic can we go and get on with what we need to do." Pete didn't miss the tiredness in New's voice and Pete decided to cut him some slack, he couldn't just annoy him constantly; New was only trying to cope with everything as well. Now that he thought about it, New had the patience of saint to put up with Pete and the way he had been acting. He knew he couldn't just not be annoying, not even Kao had figured out how to stop that, but the very least he could do was try. 

Swallowing his pride for once, Pete smiled a genuine smile New's way and threw an arm around his shoulders, 

"Sure. So what is it exactly we need to do?" New returned the smile with a relieved grin as his feet headed further down the corridor, Pete happily going along too. 

 

The pair spent the rest of the morning doing paperwork at New's desk and their conversations flowed with interesting topics and, of course, the occasional argument that more often than not ended with one of them getting a punch on the arm. They also featured in a couple of Instagram stories and Pete, slowly realising how much he loved acting, jumped into action and slung his arms over his shoulders as New sat at his desk. New could only welcome the touch and, if he was being completely honest, there were some moments where it really did feel like Tay was back.   
Neither thought they'd actually end up enjoying themselves as much as they did, especially Pete. He was adamant before they even left the car that he wouldn't have fun, but the more he pretended to enjoy spending time with New, the more he actually did. Sure, they both still annoyed the hell out of each other, but it became much more mutual and jokey rather than Pete attacking New after everything he said or did.   
Due to the surprising turn of events of them both finding the morning slightly entertaining, the time they spent at New's workplace sped past quickly. Soon enough, New looked at the time and it was time to go. They got up to leave and said their goodbyes to everyone, walking out with smiles and without raising anyone's suspicions too much for them to call them out on it. They both stepped back into the elevator and a collective sigh of relief was shared between them, 

"We did it, we made it through the day without anyone knowing something was up." New let his back lean against the wall of the lift as it started going down, his eyes closing as the hardest part of the day was over. Pete was glad that they were finally out of the office, so many people kept coming up to say hello and he couldn't believe New and Tay thought they were pulling off being just best friends. Just pretending to be Tay for a day was enough for Pete to realise how every single person in that office knew. 

However, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind as his whole body itched to go to the temple. The temple was the beginning of finding a way back to Kao and Pete couldn't wait. 

"How far away is the temple we're going to?" Pete asked casually, the tension between him and New no longer lingering over them like before. New thought for a second about the answer before opening his eyes to see Pete tapping his foot impatiently on the floor, 

"About a 20 minute drive at most." Pete nodded in confirmation and they stayed in a somewhat comfortable silence for the rest of the elevator ride. 

 

*** 

 

Dusk was setting in and Pete and New had spent the majority of their afternoon/evening at a temple. Once they had prayed and done everything they could possibly think of while there, they stepped back along the street. Pete paused to lean against the cool stone wall while New didn't realise as his feet carried him onwards. He only noticed when he went to ask Pete a question to find that there was no one beside him. Quickly rushing back to where Pete had taken rest, New stood beside him, eyes looking up to the darkening sky. 

"What do we do?" Pete's voice was quiet and the most vulnerable New had heard him all day. Taken aback with the sheer raw emotion Pete was showing, New pushed himself up to sit on the wall; his heels scuffing against the mossy rocks. 

"I wish I could say I knew, but going to the temple was a good start. We'll work it out, don't worr-" 

"What if we don't?" Pete cut New off, optimism seeming extremely difficult to obtain at this moment in time. During their time in the temple, Pete felt good, great even. He finally felt that they were doing something beneficial, but now that they were outside with the night imminent, his hope was being chased away by the shadows gradually surrounding them. 

New moved a hand to rest on Pete's shoulder in an attempt to comfort, and for once, Pete didn't shake it off. Rather, he welcomed it. 

"You can’t think like that. You have to believe things will work out, you can't afford not to." New tried his best to offer support and encouragement, but his own doubt casting over his mind tainted his words with subtle hesitation. 

Realising the emotional support wasn't helping either of them, New pushed his feelings to the side and focused on the logical side of things. 

"Maybe we're going about this all wrong." Pete turned his head to look up at New, lips twitched upwards in confusion. 

"What do you mean?" 

"We want to get back to how things used to be, right?" As New was going off on his epiphany, Pete was quickly growing tired of the constant questions with no real explanation. 

"Yeah no shit Sherlock, what do you want to do about it?" New chose to ignore the irritation in Pete's voice and finally made his point. 

"Well, all we've been doing is figuring things out using the here and now, but to get back to where we need to be, we need to go back to last night. We need to think back to before everything got messed up." Pete followed along with New's train of thought as he joined New up on the top of the wall. 

"Okay, so what was your night like?" 

"Well, Tay broke a mirror." A smile tugged at New's lips, remembering Tay doing such a Tay thing would always bring a grin to his face.

"He broke a mirror? Well no wonder I'm here and he's not, how stupid do you have to be to break a mirror, god." Pete threw his hands up in exasperation, dumbfounded that someone actually lived up to all the stereotypes in movies. 

New, on the other hand, went to shove Pete's arm, taking full offence when he called Tay stupid. 

"Hey! Only I can call Tay stupid, okay? He's just clumsy and he dropped it, no biggie." 

"No biggie? Your boyfriend being a klutz has sent him and I travelling across universes, no biggie my ass." The pair quickly found themselves falling back into the argumentative state they had been in in the morning, New turning his whole torso to stare daggers into Pete. Emotions were running high and both needed to vent, getting annoyed at each other seemed to work for them so that's exactly what they did. 

"Well what about you? What unlucky thing did you and Kao do last night?" 

"Nothing!" New scoffed, there was no way nothing unlucky happened to Pete and Kao the previous night, absolutely no way. 

"There is no way I believe that, it's not just Tay breaking a mirror to cause _this_. He does stuff like that all the time, something had to have happened in your universe for the bad luck to cross paths or whatever." Pete opened his mouth to retaliate, but New had a point. There had to be something that both of them did to cause this dire situation. He shot one last glare at New before he looked away to think back to the night before. Him and Kao had dinner, they had a shower and then they went to bed – then it hit him. 

"Okay, so we had just finished having sex for the second time and I wanted to go for a third, threes the charm and all, anyway Kao said no and we went to sleep." Pete looked back up to New expecting to see him sat there with disbelief in his eyes. Instead, he was greeted with a completely blank, contemplative face. Pete sighed, 

"Hey, I swear that's the only luck related thing that happened las- what are you doing? Stop it." New had started to swat at Pete to get him to stop talking so he could let his thoughts reach the conclusion they were so close to. 

"Yeah yeah, I know. Three's the charm, that's it." Pete dropped New's hands he was holding still as confusion took a hold of his features once again. 

"Huh?" 

"It's a long shot but just listen. Three days to do as many lucky things as possible and on the fourth morning I should wake up with Tay and you with Kao." Pete rolled his eyes, surely New didn't actually believe that was the way forward. 

"That's a fucking stretch." 

"Okay then, what bright idea have you got?" Pete stayed silent as New's gaze grew more intense, once again finding himself cursing at how New was right; he had nothing to bring to the table. Struggling coming to terms with the furthest reach Pete had ever heard of, his hands pulled at his hair – everything just kept on getting crazier and crazier. 

"Fine, when we get back to your place, we are creating a good luck list and I will be damned if we don't tick _everything_ off it." On his final word, Pete jumped off from the wall and headed in the direction to where the car was parked, assuming New would be follow him. 

And he did. 

Taking longer than usual strides to catch up with Pete's quick pace, New felt a surge of hope flood over him as he heard the determination in Pete's voice – they could do this.


	9. Chapter 9

_Nicky_? Tay couldn't believe his luck. The three people he had met so far had all been familiar to him and it was messing with his head. 

"Morning Pete!" June instantly moved in to wrap Tay in a hug, Tay sensing June was very friendly and comfortable around his friends. Tay wasn't sure if he should hug back or not; from what he had heard from Kao, Pete didn't seem like the type to hug back unless it was Kao. Thankfully, June pulled away before Tay had time to make a decision. 

"Are you feeling alright? You've usually told me to piss off by now." June laughed heartily as he took steps past Tay and went to flop down on the sofa. With anxiety growing in the pit of Tay's stomach, Tay played into the idea June had given him, 

"I woke up feeling kind of sick so not doing great." Tay didn't dare to meet June's eyes but did perch on the opposite end of the sofa, hands fumbling with each other. June sat upright and went to pat comfortingly on Tay's back, confusion dancing across his features briefly when his hand wasn't immediately shoved away. 

"If you're ill, I can stay here and take care of you. I make the best soup-" 

"No!" Tay startled himself at how quickly he jumped to decline June's offer, he knew he was going to say no anyway, but being that abrupt shocked him. It didn't, however, shock June – he was used to the loud and blunt words of his friend. 

"Okay, you got me, the soup is shop-bought but I am offended you think my cooking is that bad." Though Tay was beyond stressed, he had to give it too June, he was effortlessly calm and easy to talk to. 

Tay wracked his brain on how to get June out of the apartment without raising too much suspicion. He was going to go with the fact that Kao would be out of lesson soon but he remembered Kao saying that he and Pete weren't out yet, and he wasn't about to bring his and Pete's relationship out into the open. He finally decided to go with what he usually did, or what he desperately wanted to do, when he was ill himself; sleep. 

"No, it's just that I'm gonna go back to sleep so there'll be no point in you staying." Tay tried as best he could to sound as if he were ill, and he had had a constant headache since waking up so he did seem somewhat convincing. June just rolled his eyes, a typical suggestion from Pete – to be left alone and to sleep. 

Throwing his hands up in exasperation, June turned to look at Tay, his tense nature not going unnoticed. 

"Well if you've decided to sleep then there's no changing your mind, you're like a really annoying cat you know?" Tay held back a laugh, being compared to an annoying cat when his boyfriend back home was the epitome of exactly that was highly amusing to him. Tay also added this to the list of similarities he kept finding out about Pete and New, the lengthening list made Tay want to meet Pete even more. 

A hand waving past his face brought Tay out of his thoughts and back to the figure sat beside him, 

"Being ill makes you so weird." June laughed to himself as he rose from the sofa, a gentle shake of his head as he headed back towards the door. Tay nervously laughed back, thankful his sick façade helped hide his not-like-Pete-at-all impersonation. 

June had just made it to the door and he turned back around to say his final words to Tay, 

"Hope you feel better soon, I was going to see if you were free to go this new BBQ place for lunch but seeing as you're sick, we'll have to take a rain-check." June beamed towards Tay and Tay felt the urge to smile back - June's wide smile was infectious. 

"Thanks and yeah, I'll let you know when I feel better." As Tay was talking, June had opened the door and was currently hanging off the edge of it, Tay could picture him falling over if he kept the door swinging at the pace it already was. 

"Do that, I've heard this BBQ place is incredible. Now go and get your beauty sleep, God knows you need it. See ya!" As Tay replied with a small 'bye' to June's joking words and then the door was closed shut; a weight lifting off Tay's shoulders when he heard the click of the door falling back into its closed position. 

Leaning back against the sofa cushions, Tay breathed a sigh of relief, he had made it through another conversation with a complete stranger who resembled some of his friends exactly. 

It wasn't even midday and Tay was already exhausted, thoughts of actually taking a nap crossing his mind. Before he could decide to take a nap and take himself to the bedroom or not, Tay's eyes closed shut. His head rolled back into the soft pillows and within minutes small snores sounded. 

 

*** 

 

Cracking his eyes open, Tay let them adjust the brightness of the room and his hands felt a blanket resting over him; eyebrows quirking when he couldn't remember putting a blanket on himself, he didn't even know where they were kept. 

"Afternoon sleepy head." Tay tilted his heads towards the familiar voice to see Kao sat opposite him in an armchair, cup of coffee in hand. Moving a hand to rub his eyes, Tay sat up and looked over to the clock hanging on the wall opposite – 12:53. Tay couldn't quite believe it, he had been asleep for just over 2 hours. 

"How long have you been back?" Tay's voice was groggy, he was still in the process of waking up and he silently apologised to Kao for, if the next few minutes, he was slow or slightly grumpy. 

"About 40 minutes now, I saw you asleep and didn't have the heart to wake you." Kao smiled over at Tay before taking a small sip of his drink, his legs up and crossed on the cream chair he was sat on. Tay nodded in acknowledgement as he turned around and sat with his back against the sofa. 

After a minute or so of comfortable silence where Tay was waking up, the only noise being the occasional sip from Kao, Tay perked up and told Kao what had happened earlier that morning, 

"Oh, you won't believe who showed up earlier?" Kao's attention instantly turned from his phone to Tay as his curiosity took a hold, 

"Who?" 

"June." Kao choked on his coffee. 

"Wait, really. What happened?" Tay sighed and scratched his head as he thought back to the stressful events of a couple hours prior. 

"He wasn't here too long, I said I was ill and wanted to sleep so he left pretty quickly without any suspicions I think. I hope." The last two words were much more of an afterthought, but Kao heard and agreed with it – June was loud and wouldn't keep quiet if he had anything to say. Though, saying that, he hadn't received any texts from him so Kao was almost certain they were in the clear. Tay did have a pretty solid story though, sleeping was Pete's thing so it worked out well. 

"Well that was a very Pete thing of you to say so I think we're good." Kao grinned at Tay in an attempt to comfort him and it worked, Tay let out a breath as if he had been holding one in. 

"That's good to hear, but that's not everything, there's more." Tay grimaced at his own words, still in disbelief at who June looked like. 

"Oh?" Kao placed his mug on the table beside him, making sure it was safely on a coaster, before looking over at Tay expectantly; waiting to hear the story about to be told. 

"He looked exactly like my friend Nicky. The three people I've met so far have all been identical to people I know, when will this universe give me a break?" A chuckle was tagged on the end of his sentence as Tay rose from the sofa and headed towards the kitchen to get a drink. Tay didn't realise it, and neither did Kao, but he was making himself at home in the apartment and feeling more and more comfortable in it despite only being in it for one morning. If he did realise, he would put it down to Kao being so welcoming and, though he and New were different, the overwhelming sense of care Kao had was in abundance and Tay found comfort in that; it felt like New and that was he all needed. 

"Oh wow, that must've been rough." Kao sat back where he sat, dumbfounded at the uncanniness of Tay only meeting people he knew back home. 

"Well, you know what they say, three's the charm so hopefully that’s all your friends doppelgängers you'll meet here." Tay laughed at Kao's words, hoping that was the case too, as he finished pouring water into his glass and turned the tap off. He made haste in getting back to sit down with Kao, ready to ask him about his day when an idea popped into his head. 

"So what did June wa-" 

"Kao, you're a genius!" Tay exclaimed as he put his glass down, nearly dropping it, in excitement. 

"Thanks?" Kao quirked his brows in confusion, waiting for Tay to elaborate on his comment. 

"Three's the charm, that could be it." Tay forgot about sitting down and paced in front of the couch, thoughts going a million miles per hour. 

"Could be what?" With elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands, Kao leant forward, Tay's excitement rubbing off on him. 

"My ticket out of here. Three is a lucky number right, well maybe if we make enough good luck in three days, Pete and I will finally swap back." Tay paused his steps to watch Kao's reaction, surprised to find small nods and not a 'that’s ridiculous' look. 

"It's a stretch but it's all we got, so I'm on board. What lucky things are you thinking of doing?" 

Tay looked over at Kao, a surge of confidence that this plan would work coursing through him, 

"Anything and everything."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im sorry if this has kind of been going at a slow pace but in the next few chapters, the pace will pick up so get ready!  
> well i hope you enjoyed this chapter and let me know what you thought in the comments, them and kudos are always appreciated!


	10. Chapter 10

_The next day (day two)._

 

After being rudely awakened by New as he slept on the couch (New had hoped Tay was back and his shakes and shouts were possibly just slightly too much for the morning), Pete absolutely refusing to share the bed for a second night, the pair quickly got showered and dressed. It was near silence the entire time, the odd comment being made but New quickly found out that Pete was _not_ a morning person so silence suited them best. 

They were just finishing their breakfast when New spoke as he put his empty dishes in the sink, 

"So we need to make that list of lucky things to do." Pete made a noise akin to a yes but he still had a mouthful of toast in his mouth, a few crumbs spilling over onto his lips. New rolled his eyes and waited for Pete to finish eating and wipe away the access around his mouth. Pete noticed and did what any mature adult would do, slowing down his actions to a pace so slow watching paint dry seemed more entertaining. 

He eventually finished his mouthful, much to New's relief, and responded with coherent words, 

"Yeah we do, where do you keep pens and paper?" New moved around the kitchen island to a drawer and pulled out a notebook and pen, sliding them over to Pete. Catching them, Pete instantly tore the lid off and opened the notebook to a blank page. New circled back to sit beside Pete and rested his head in his hand while his elbow perched on the counter. 

"I know I said three days, but does it start today or are we counting yesterday as the first day?" New questioned with genuineness, his eyes watching as Pete moved his hands across the top of the page writing out ' _getting back to Kao_ '. New coughed and Pete sighed as he scribbled a small ' _and Tay_ ' on the end. 

"Well, we did go to the temple yesterday so I'm gonna say yesterday was the first day." Pete answered honestly, he couldn't see today being the first if he had already been here for a day, not even the universe could be that mean. 

"Yeah, I was leaning on today being the second day too. So what's the plan?" Pete was about to speak, but just as his mouth opened his hand went straight back on the paper. New watched with intent, trying to guess what Pete was so fervent on writing he couldn't just say it. 

_Four leafed clover_. 

"We're going to a park, or as many as it takes to find a four leafed clover." 

 

*** 

 

It was nearing dusk and New and Pete were on their 17th park in an attempt to find a four leafed clover; both their stubborn natures helping them hugely. They had been outside for hours now and had had no luck in finding what they so desperately wanted to. There were a few arguments here and there, Pete suggesting that New get out of his area and New complaining about his grumbling stomach. Despite the constant bickering, they both went to lunch and had a somewhat civilised time. They learnt about each other's favourite foods and foods that they hated, useless information to carry with them but it was proof they were starting to get along. There were even a few laughs shared between the two, both feeling a small weight lift off their shoulders at the happiness (no matter how brief) they felt. Of course neither shared that fact, but the pair could both acknowledge that finally becoming more than just a stranger they're forced to be around was a nice feeling. 

"Pete!" Pete almost jumped out of his skin as he heard a distant shout of his name. He turned around to see New hurtling towards him at full speed, a fleeting worry he would crash right into him. New gradually came to a stop, hands resting on his thighs as he regained his lost breath. 

"Four," another deep breath, "leafed clover." New took a couple steps forwards to shove the small plant in his hand in front of Pete who was sitting on the floor, jeans stained green at the knee. Pete looked from the clover to New and back again a few times, his mouth quickly opening in shock. Standing up, he punched the air in victory, after looking for the damned thing the entire day and finally seeing it in front of him counted as a huge victory. 

"Fuck yes, I can't believe you actually found it." Pete almost wanted to hug New in excitement but stopped himself and settled with raising a hand, silently asking New for a high-five. New instantly cracked a smile and the sound of palms slapping each other sounded between them. 

"Yeah, I did. Now can we please go and get some food." New's breath was still getting back to normal and Pete could only laugh to himself as his arm was slung around New's shoulders, them both taking steps out of the park and both content with their day's work. Finding a four leafed clover was near impossible and their hope had dwindled around the 13th park, but their determination didn't let them stop. And thank God it didn't because here they were, walking tall and proud out of the park with the biggest symbol of hope either of them could've hoped for. 

 

*** 

 

_Day three_. 

 

The third day was a busy one for Pete and New. Before they had left, they had made a list of as many lucky charms to buy as they could. With a list reaching double figures, their mission was to go out and buy as many items on the list as they could, preferably all of them. 

Walking around towns and malls all day had made them spend every minute with each other, and unlike the first day, they were much more comfortable with each other. They were surprised at how quick it took them to get this close, but with both of them going through the same thing (which wasn't a particularly easy and stress-free situation), being close and getting along was a must. They couldn't be mad at each other the whole, that just wouldn't work and both could confidently say they liked the other considerably more than they did the first day. 

Sure, there was still bickering, but it felt very familiar and friendly. Casual conversation flowed with ease, topics coming to mind quickly and their smiles or laughs didn't seemed forced anymore. 

The only subject neither mentioned, a sort of silent agreement between the two, was Tay and Kao. They constantly dwelled on their other half, but avoided talking about it at all costs, them learning that day (amongst other personality traits) that neither were the deep and emotional type. 

When they eventually returned home with all their items but one in numerous bags, they flopped down on the sofa and sat there for a while. New was about to suggest some dinner since it was nearing 8pm, but when he looked over to Pete he found him fast asleep, mouth open and head rolled back. New laughed to himself at the familiar sight, seeing Tay in that exact position countless times before. He moved off the sofa and busied himself with sorting out the items they had bought earlier. 

He hung the dream-catcher above the bed and balanced a horseshoe on the mantel piece. A faux rabbits foot was set beside a white elephant figure on the kitchen counter and a maneki-neko was placed in the centre of the coffee table. As New walked away, he stubbed his toe on the table and cursed aloud. Unfortunately in Pete's case, the curse was said loud enough to wake him up, his eyes instantly narrowing on the owner of the voice. 

"Do you have to be so loud?" Pete groaned as his palms pushed against his closed eyes, back arching as he stretched. New whipped back around on one foot, the other being rubbed by his hands trying to soothe the dull, but very prominent, ache. 

"Oh, I'm so very sorry my pain woke you up." Pete cracked his eyes opened and threw a cushion New's way upon hearing his sarcastic words, a laugh sounding when New inevitably lost his balance and fell backwards. Luckily, New and his quick reflexes had him turning round so he fell against the sofa rather than the floor, he could only imagine the teasing Pete would give him if he fell flat on his ass. 

Throwing the cushion back at Pete, New continued the teasing, 

"This might be our last night together and you're gonna throw shit at me, why am I surprised?" Pete glared at New for a moment but his face softened when he heard the laugh sound from his new-found friend, he was right; this could very well be the last night and not even Pete wanted it to end on a fight. So he smiled and joined in with the jokes, 

"Yeah, why are you surprised? You've known me all of three days and you _don't_ know me inside and out, I'm offended." New threw his hands up in mock surrender, shaking his head as he mouthed ' _sorry_ '. 

The only sounds that could be heard next were the laughs and chuckles from the pair and New, lost in the comfort and ease of the conversation, let his next words slip from his mouth without him even realising, 

"I wonder how Tay and Kao are doing?" Pete visibly tensed, his smile flattening out into a straight line. Realising the instant he spoke, New was going to backtrack and change the subject, but after saying his boyfriends name after a day of not mentioning him at all, he found how much he wanted to talk about Tay. He didn't want to get all sad, but being able to mention Tay in casual conversation was something he had missed. 

"I can guarantee him and Kao are pretty much best friends at this point." New attempted to continue with the jokey mood, but not even he could ignore the obvious strain. Though talking about their significant others wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it definitely made the room feel heavier almost. 

Pete was going to get up and walk away the second he heard Kao's name. He didn't want to talk about him and not because he would get sad, but he would get angry and he knew New would not appreciate that. But he stayed exactly where he was, feet planted on the floor, not letting his body move up from the sofa. When he thought about it, maybe talking about Kao in this jokey manner would be alright. He did miss him more than anything and he had to admit hearing his name the second time brought a soft smile to his lips. He took in a deep breath and responded with honesty, 

"If I know Kao, then they are definitely best friends by now. I bet Tay felt right at home the first day." Pete shuffled in his seat but found himself enjoying talking about Kao and wanted to keep on talking. 

New smiled softly at the thought of Tay being the socialite that he is even in the dire circumstances they all were in. 

"He can get stressed and anxious so easily but manages to stay so optimistic all the time, I honestly don't how he does it." New leant back into the sofa, not really noticing if Pete was listening or not. He was, though. He nodded along and replied almost straight after, 

"Yeah, Kao doesn't really get anxious or anything but he can definitely be too optimistic at times. It drives me up the wall at times, but after a while you realise you're glad they're that rather than the opposite. I may enjoy my moody days but God forbid if I ever saw Kao like that, as long as he's smiling I'm good." New hung on to every word Pete said, never really seeing it like that before. Pete was right, Tay smiling with optimism was far better than him frowning in pessimism. 

"You're not as angry and irritable as you seem, you know. You've got this soft side too." Pete rolled his eyes at the compliment, a small smile toying with his lips. 

"Well you're definitely just the stubborn asshole I thought you were that first morning." His words were obviously joking, but New played into being overly offended which ended in Pete throwing yet another pillow in New's direction. 

They stayed on the sofa for a while, their conversation a good mix of jokes and seriousness. New, at one point, got up and made them both some tea and they learnt about the others relationships. They sat there for what seemed like hours just saying anything they could think of about their better half; how they came to be together, pet peeves and endearing traits. 

"I miss him." Pete surprised himself with how sad he sounded, it coming out of nowhere. He had amazed himself at how much he had actually enjoyed talking about Kao and hearing about Tay with New, but now he was getting into an upset state of mind; exactly what he wanted to avoid. He was expecting, hoping, New to move on and talk about another time Tay's clumsiness broke something, but instead New replied with equally sad words, 

"I miss Tay too. It's so frustrating because you're right here looking exactly like him but I can't hug you or kiss you or fall asleep in your arms because you aren't _him_." New flickered an apologetic gaze up to Pete, realising he probably toed over the line no-emotions line. He cleared his throat of the lump forming in it and blinked back the tears he could feel coming. Pete could feel the prick of tears in his eyes too, everything New had said applied to him too, seeing Kao but knowing it wasn't him was infuriating. But since New had said what he did, all Pete wanted was a hug from Kao and he debated asking New what he was on his mind, but the only way he had ever felt better after being like this was from a hug from Kao, 

"Can I, hug you?" His voice cracked and regretted it the instant he spoke it, knowing how stupid it was and how New was going to say no. However, to his surprise, New said yes. Little did he know, but New was feeling the same; the only thing that brought him comfort when he got sad like this was a hug from Tay.   
New started to rise from the sofa, awkward tension falling over the pair, Pete laughing to himself at the formality New seemed to be displaying.   
Joining New, Pete now stood opposite him and was stuck at what to do next. Luckily for him, New took it upon himself to close the gap and dragged Pete into his embrace; one arm wrapping his waist and the other going above his shoulder. The instant Pete hugged New back, all tension dissipated and the pair closed their eyes as their chins rested on shoulders.   
Neither wanted to pull back, it felt too much like the real thing to let go, but eventually Pete pulled back and stepped backwards. New's arms dropped to his sides and sniffed, willing the tears to stay in his eyes. 

"Goodnight Pete, if this is the last night, then it was nice getting to know you and I tell Kao I said hi." A sad laugh tumbled out after his words, New stretching his palms out to collect himself.   
Pete just smiled, 

"Likewise, although if this isn't the last night and I have to see your sorry face tomorrow morning, then we are going to get good luck wanted tattooed on our foreheads." New laughed and nodded, 

"Agreed." The pair smiled at each other, hoping this really was the last time they would see each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i got a soft kind of sad writing the end of this one  
> hope yall enjoyed and all comments and kudos are appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by a tweet i read and i hope that you’re enjoying it so far!!


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